Singing Story, Healing Drum

Shamans and Storytellers of Turkic Siberia

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A must read for anyone interested in Siberian culture.

Endlessly fascinating, often moving, and a must read for anyone interested in the cultures of Siberia. Adele Barker, Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies, University of Arizona

The history and contemporary transformation of south Siberia is illuminated through this exploration of the shamanic revival in the Turkic Republics of Tuva and Khakassia. Based on extensive field-work and including folktales, legends, and shamanic poems that elucidate spiritual traditions as well as descriptions of local rituals, Singing Story, Healing Drum is at once travel narrative, autobiography, history, and ethnology.

Kira Van Deusen weaves together traditional scholarship and a personal account of her travels through Siberia and contacts with scholars, shamans, and storytellers active in reviving traditional culture. Highlighting the importance of oral literature and music, Singing Story, Healing Drum guides the reader through the often confusing phenomena of the shamanic revival, both in Russia and abroad.

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"In an impressive turn for her already notable oeuvre, Van Deusen takes that rare hybrid genre of careful scholarship and clear writing for a wide audience one step further. With moments of arresting prose, her writing is often poetic and always clear. The stories clearly fold back on each other in ways that make the book's tales far more than the sum of their parts." Bruce Grant, Department of Anthropology, New York University. "The stories in this book are truly captivating and the photographs of the land and of the people are equally striking." Jean-Guy A. Goulet, dean, Faculty of Human Sciences, Saint Paul University."Endlessly fascinating, often moving, and a must read for anyone interested in the cultures of Siberia." Adele Barker, Comparative Cultural and Literary Studies, University of Arizona

Kira Van Deusen, a storyteller/folklorist in Vancouver, B.C., is the author of The Flying Tiger: Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur and Raven and the Rock: Storytelling in Chukotka.